


Cover Copy, Blind Copy

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Emails, Office AU, Secret Admirer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 08:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15432855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Hyunmin has been receiving flowers for a month.





	Cover Copy, Blind Copy

Hyunmin was pleased that the pattern had continued in the same way his Friday mornings had for the past month. Arriving at his desk had ranged across the spectrum of embarrassing depending on what awaited for him but Hyunmin was mostly pleased that he wasn't greeted with the disappointment of having nothing to feel embarrassed about.

“This is disgusting,” Hyungseob said as he knocked his shoulder into Hyunmin’s. “How is anyone expected to get any work done when you're cultivating a botanical garden at your desk?”

“You don't do work anyway,” Hyunmin retorted. Hyungseob slapped Hyunmin’s shoulder but there wasn't any malice in the action even as he shoved Hyunmin out of the way to search through the massive bouquet for a message. 

“Roses are red, you’re really cute, running through my head… you’ll catch the flu?” Hyungseob turned to frown at Hyunmin with the card held towards him. “This might be the worst one yet. Why would you catch the flu while running through the head of your secret admirer?”

“Maybe they’re wishing I had the flu,” Hyunmin suggested. 

“Who’d send flowers and tell you to catch the flu?” Mina asked as she elbowed her way past Hyunmin to pluck the message card out of Hyungseob’s fingers. 

“You would definitely do that,” Hyungseob accused. 

Maybe Hyungseob was right, and Hyunmin suspected Mina had wished colds and flu on many people in her time, but this didn’t look like Mina’s handiwork. Also she denied it very loudly and hurtfully. 

“As if I would ever waste my money on flowers for someone like Hyunmin!”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Hyunmin asked injuredly. 

At least Hyunmin could count on Hyungseob to come to his rescue. “You wish you could spend all your money on Hyunmin! You should be so lucky to buy flowers for someone as wonderful as him! Right, Haknyeon? You’d buy Hyunmin flowers if you could, wouldn’t you?”

Haknyeon apparently liked to get a head start on work and had been typing away on his computer before Hyunmin and Hyungseob arrived to discover the flowers on the desk. He wilted at the question and looked at the three standing above him with a question of his own in his eyes. 

“Just say yes,” Hyungseob said through gritted teeth.

“Um. Yes?” Haknyeon said. Hyunmin wished anyone else was around to be more convincing about the fact that maybe he did deserve to receive increasingly elaborate bouquets. Even Yoojung or Minji would be useful at a time like this to agree with Hyungseob and make Hyunmin feel good about himself. Instead he had to make do with Haknyeon smiling blandly as though waiting for everyone to leave him alone. Hyunmin was fine with that. Quantity surveyors didn’t often want to get involved with errant conversations like these. It was better to leave him to his work and give him the chance to get picked up by the company beyond the placement period. 

“You’re such a nuisance,” Mina grumbled. 

“I was just curious,” Hyunmin said. “I just want to know if it’s a joke or if someone really does like me.”

“It’s not a joke.”

Hyunmin was surprised that it wasn’t Hyungseob coming to his rescue but Haknyeon who was glowing pink at his desk as he looked back at the screen of his computer and sunk down in his seat. 

“Was it you?” Hyungseob asked at the same time Hyunmin asked the clearly more useful question, “Did you see who did it?”

Haknyeon hesitated. Hyunmin couldn’t think of anyone better to have working on the station on the other side of the desk than Haknyeon. Every few days he asked Hyunmin out to lunch and he warned Hyunmin if Mina had messed with his computer and he threw pencils at Hyunmin to warn him out of his nap when a superior came by to check on their work. And he was nice to look at, but that probably wasn’t too important. Regardless, Hyunmin liked things the way they were and he didn’t want to bother Haknyeon too much and have him decide against any future lunchtime invitations. 

“I didn’t see who did it,” Haknyeon said quietly. “I just don’t think anyone would want to play a trick like that on you, Hyunmin.”

“What would you know?” Hyungseob asked. “There are plenty of people who do things just to be mean.”

“So you only think someone would buy me flowers as a joke?”

“You’re taking my words out of context,” Hyungseob denied quickly.

“I heard the same thing you did,” Mina said solemnly. It was good to know that Hyunmin wasn’t being overly sensitive but it wasn’t great to think that one of his best friends in the whole world didn’t seem to think that someone would buy flowers to be nice to Hyunmin. He surely wasn’t that unfortunate as a person. 

“Anyway,” Hyungseob blustered. “You already said that you didn’t see who left the flowers so how would you know-”

“It was a courier,” Haknyeon interrupted. “A courier brought the flowers in but they said the flowers were really expensive or something so someone wouldn’t spend that much money as a joke.”

“Who signed for the flowers?” Hyungseob asked with narrowed eyes. 

“I did. And I let the courier in so I don’t think anyone else saw them. I wouldn’t bother asking the superiors or anything.”

“How do you know how much the flowers cost?”

“The courier told me,” Haknyeon said tightly. “I mean. The flowers didn’t cost loads of money or anything, I guess but-”

“Ugh, just leave him alone,” Mina groaned. 

Haknyeon stopped talking abruptly and only sent a brief look of thanks Mina’s way before trying to duck (unsuccessfully) so that his monitor blocked from from view. He was kind of cute even if he looked worried while rapidly typing something. He was so diligent and Hyunmin could probably learn a thing or two from him. He always managed to get all the work done even while finding the time to respond to all the silly little emails Hyunmin sent him. It would be good to ask for tips at some point. 

Hyungseob elbowed Hyunmin roughly and hissed for him to pay attention. Hyunmin was paying attention. 

“What?”

“Do you really want to know who sent you the flowers?” 

“Of course I do,” Hyunmin replied. Hyungseob didn’t look convinced and neither did Mina. She walked backwards slowly and gestured for the other two to follow her. She didn’t stop until she had reached the other side of the room and perched casually on the desk of one of the head quantity surveyors who often worked from home. 

“Isn’t it just that you want a specific someone to have sent the flowers?” Mina whispered. 

“What do you mean?” Hyunmin asked. Of course it would be better if a specific someone sent all the flowers to Hyunmin. A specific someone who liked Hyunmin would be fantastic. 

“Do you like someone right now?” Mina asked. Hyunmin knew what the question was but he'd rather appear to be oblivious and dumb than someone happy to pine quietly over someone who isn't interested. 

“I don't  _ dislike  _ anyone.”

“You're so annoying,” Hyungseob grumbled. 

“What?”

“If anyone in the world could have sent you the flowers who would you want it to be?” Mina asked in a steady voice. 

“Someone cute, I guess. Someone who I would be able to get on well with.”

Hyunmin said what he felt so it didn’t warrant both Mina and Hyungseob rolling their eyes. 

“Give us a name,” Hyungseob said. Hyunmin’s very deep and heartfelt sentiments didn’t warrant anything like this either. 

“There isn’t a name to tell you,” Hyunmin said quickly. Unfortunately nobody was in the mood to believe what he was saying. 

“Hyunmin I have more staples than I would ever know what to do with in my desk drawer,” Mina said. “Don’t give me a reason to get creative.”

“Dubious threats of assault aside, we just want to help you,” Hyungseob said. “Just confirm our suspicions and we will help you finally get your pre-teen romance where you both happen to need to do all your photocopying at the same time so you can spend time together and you can send each other stupid emails during work hours and the IT staff can laugh about you and send screenshots to everyone else in the office.”

“Why would we need to go to the photocopier when our desks are-” Hyunmin closed his mouth quickly but he was already too late to stop the triumph settling on his friends’ faces.

“You owe me lunch,” Hyungseob said to Mina. She shook his hand begrudgingly.

“What do you mean?” Hyunmin asked. He hoped he had stopped himself in time before he exposed himself but this weird bet had him wondering what his friends had been betting on. “Why are you getting lunch together. Are you buying me lunch too?”

“No you can get your own lunch with the person you like,” Mina said. 

“Uh, why? I don’t like anyone so how can I get lunch together with nobody?” Hyunmin asked. 

“You just admitted the opposite,” Hyungseob said. He followed it up with a very unsubtle point over at Haknyeon’s desk. Weird. 

“I don’t like… anyone,” Hyunmin hissed. “And if Hyungseob guessed that person then who do you think I like?”

Mina scoffed. “Oh no, we both knew it was Haknyeon. Our bet was on how long it would take for you to tell us. I gave you too much credit and thought you would tell us weeks ago so I technically owed Hyungseob lunch already.”

“Why do you think I like Haknyeon?” Hyunmin asked, admittedly too loud. 

“At risk of getting a lot of people in trouble, IT have sent screenshots of lots of your conversations to a lot of people who work here.”

“They have?” Hyunmin couldn’t believe this. His conversations with Haknyeon were private and also very embarrassing. A lot of the time Hyunmin felt nervous about what he was writing and whether or not Haknyeon would be able to easily respond. Sometimes Hyunmin said things that were bolder than he could usually manage aloud and he didn’t love the fact that other people had seen that part of him. “What sort of things have you seen?”

“I think telling you specifics might upset you,” Mina said, “but yes we all think it is terrible that everything reminds him of you and you always want to tell him how great he is.”

“What you just said now has upset me,” Hyunmin said. “Why is it terrible? Can I not tell a friend how great he is?”

“When have you ever told me how great I am?” Hyungseob asked.

“You are great.”

“Don’t be insincere,” Mina said seriously. “So anyway, it must be Haknyeon sending you the flowers, right? So when are you going to-”

“I understand that none of you are taking your degrees or your placements seriously but it would be better if you at least pretend to do work if you’re going to make a habit of abusing the company email.” 

Hyunmin didn’t quite understand how Seongri managed to sneak up on all three of them, especially considering he could typically be identified as the site manager making the most noise. Sunghyuk, giggling into his hands, also should have been an obvious tell that someone was approaching. 

“Your faces,” Seongri laughed as he clapped them all on the shoulder in turn. He pulled Sunghyuk under his arm cheerily. “Imagine if I was really like that. But seriously I wish I could get paid to not do anything and send hilarious emails.”

“You’ve seen my emails too?” Hyunmin asked. 

“Of course I have,” Seongri said looking almost offended by the question. “I’m professional. I check my emails too. I’d check them more often if I had someone telling me that it would be nice if our lunch breaks together lasted forever.”

That wasn’t fair. How could Hyunmin stand here to be made fun of. Haknyeon was the one who had said that he wanted their lunch breaks to last forever. It made sense. He didn’t even take a moment to relax during working hours (aside from the moments he spent replying to Hyunmin’s sort of professional emails) so lunch breaks were the only time that he took things easy. But Hyunmin wasn't about to make Haknyeon feel bad about any of that and at any moment someone could actually arrive today tell them all off for slacking. He went to his desk (not sulking at all) and ignored the jeering sounds of Seongri quoting emails. 

Haknyeon sent Hyunmin a brief smile before returning to whatever he was doing on his computer. He worked too hard, but not to the extent that he didn't ever send Hyunmin emails. 

 

From: jhn@produce.com

Subject: Good morning <3

To: bhm@produce.com

Do they think I am weird now?

Ju Haknyeon  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

  
  
  


From: bhm@produce.com

Subject: re: Good morning <3

To: jhn@produce.com

Nobody thinks you’re weird! Everyone loves you!!! 

Byun Hyunmin  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

  
  


From: jhn@produce.com

Subject: re: re: Good morning <3

To: bhm@produce.com

Oh good! I was worried!!!

Ju Haknyeon  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

  
  


“You don’t have anything to worry about,” Hyunmin said across their desks. Haknyeon smiled and hushed him. But it was too late and Wontak was giving Hyunmin a strange look from the desk beside him. Hyunmin needed to pretend he was working.

 

From: bhm@produce.com

Subject: re: re:re: Good morning <3

To: jhn@produce.com

You shouldn’t worry!! They were all just making fun of me!!

Byun Hyunmin  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

 

A hand came to rest on Hyunmin’s shoulder. “You think that was us making fun of you?” Seongri asked with a sigh. He patted Hyunmin’s shoulder and shook his head sadly. 

“Stop trying to see their emails before everyone else,” Mina yelled across the office. 

“Caught red handed,” Seongri sighed. “Can you just go right ahead and send me screenshots of today’s emails so I don’t have to wait like the rest of these guys.”

“Obviously not,” Hyunmin grumbled. Seongri left muttering to himself but that didn’t stop Haknyeon from staring through the gap in the computer monitors with what can only be described as horror on his face. This was a problem. Haknyeon was typing on his computer but he wasn’t replying to Hyunmin’s email. 

“Haknyeon,” Hyunmin whispered.

“I’m busy,” Haknyeon said. He wasn’t whispering. 

Hyunmin was glad he had the sound turned up on his computer to hear his email notification. Unfortunately it wasn’t from Haknyeon. 

 

From: kmn@producecom

Subject: how’s it going chief?

To: bhm@produce.com

You want to talk about it?

Luv u

Kang Mina  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

 

From: bhm@produce.com

Subject: re: how’s it going chief?

To: kmn@produce.com

No :( 

Byun Hyunmin  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

 

“Hey, Hyunmin,” Wontak said from the next desk. He was leaning too close and Hyunmin quickly pressed the power button until the computer shut down. Probably not his best move. 

“Uh, hi, yeah,” Hyunmin said. 

Wontak grinned. “Are you going to do something about your flowers?”

“My flowers?” Hyunmin asked. Wontak pointed at the bouquet on Hyunmin’s desk. “Oh, right. The flowers which may or may not be from a secret admirer.”

“They might not be from a secret admirer?” Wontak asked. 

“Were you not here when Hyungseob and Mina were sure that it was a joke?”

“I already said it wasn’t a joke,” Haknyeon hissed. He looked surprised at himself and then added, “I mean, I’m not talking to you.”

This was possibly the worst thing Hyunmin had ever heard. This day would have been much better if he hadn’t had any flowers at all. He didn’t want Haknyeon to be mad at him like this. 

“You’re not talking to me?”

Haknyeon didn’t respond but he sent a very significant look towards Wontak. It was terrible. 

“Hyunmin, your flowers,” Wontak said. 

There was nothing for it. “Haknyeon, I need your help with the flowers.”

“Just put them under your desk until you can take them home and put them in a vase,” Haknyeon said. 

“Please just go with him,” Wontak said. 

At least that worked. Haknyeon got up from his desk and picked up the bouquet from Hyunmin’s desk. He walked quickly away towards the kitchen but Hyunmin could barely keep up. Haknyeon was really mad at him. Mad enough to close the door behind him and not let Hyunmin into the kitchen. 

“Haknyeon,” Hyunmin said as he knocked through the door. “Are you going to let me in? Are you going to put the flowers into a vase? You’re not going to kill them are you? Haknyeon, please don’t kill my flowers.”

The door swung open. Despite Haknyeon’s disgruntled expression he looked really cute holding the flowers right before shoving them into Hyunmin’s chest. 

“I didn’t kill your stupid flowers,” Haknyeon said. 

The flowers weren’t stupid. They were really nice flowers. They really could have been expensive. Hyunmin held them very carefully as he searched through the cupboards for a vase. The search wasn’t so great. 

“Do you think this is big enough?”

“A bowl?” Haknyeon asked. “What did you do with all the other flowers?”

“I put them in that really nice vase you got me. But until I can get home I usually put them in the fridge.”

Haknyeon didn’t give any definitive answers so Hyunmin filled up the bowl with water and propped the flowers in there as best he could. Haknyeon didn’t look impressed but he didn’t say anything about the flower arrangement. 

“Can I ask why you have been sharing our emails with everyone in the office?”

“I haven’t, I swear,” Hyunmin said. 

“Then what were you talking about with Seongri? He said he wanted you to send him our emails. And Mina said something too,” Haknyeon said quietly. 

Hyunmin wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say at this point. The situation had possibly already passed that point but he didn’t want to tell Haknyeon that their conversations weren’t entirely private. It might have been worth putting in a formal complaint to human resources. He’d leave that up to Haknyeon seeing as sorting this out was slightly more of a priority. 

“I wouldn’t show people our emails like that. I don’t want you to be upset with me, Haknyeon. I wouldn’t do that when obviously the messages are private.”

“Then what was everyone talking about?” Haknyeon frowned. 

“It’s a HR issue I guess,” Hyunmin shrugged. “But please understand I wouldn’t do anything that would ruin us talking together like this. I like what we have going on here.”

“You like this? Us talking?” Haknyeon asked. 

“Of course! There’s nothing better than talking to you,” Hyunmin said quickly. “I don’t need flowers or to make a fuss or anything like that. Just talking to you and hanging out every now and then and whatever else you want to do is all I need from this.”

“You don’t need flowers?” Haknyeon asked. 

Hyunmin looked at the flowers lying ungracefully on the counter with their stems half-submerged in the bowl of water. They were very nice and pretty with all the bright colours and they might have even been expensive. But Hyunmin wasn’t very good at looking after flowers and he’d been quite upset when he had to call his mum asking how to dispose flowers three days after receiving the first bouquet and they had withered. He much prefered the way it felt wondering whether he would find anything on his desk and then finding out that someone was thinking of him and trying to get his attention in this way.

“I don’t need the flowers but if it isn’t you sending them I will literally die right now.”

Hyunmin’s heartfelt words were very serious so he didn’t expect to be met with laughter.

“You’ll die? If I am not the person sending you flowers then you’ll die right now?”

That is exactly what Hyunmin just explained. “Yes. I will die and I feel like that must be what I have to do because you’re not telling me that it was you all along.”

Haknyeon continued not confirming he was the sender of the flowers and Hyunmin’s mind wasn’t helping him to decide on how to get out of this situation. Haknyeon laughed and hid his face in his hands as though that would stifle the laughter and spare Hyunmin’s feelings (which it did not.)

“I am just going to leave now,” Hyunmin said while Haknyeon laughed. He’d heard of nervous laughter and guessed he must have been witnessing that. He wouldn’t want to be responsible for somebody else’s embarrassment-related death either. 

Haknyeon thankfully didn’t stop Hyunmin from leaving and he was able to return to his desk to find Hyungseob sitting in his seat. 

“Has it happened, are you married now?” Hyungseob asked when he stopped scrolling through Hyunmin’s emails for long enough to notice that he had returned. 

“No. I’m not married at all,” Hyunmin grumbled. “Thanks for turning my computer back on but go away. Haknyeon is already unhappy with me because he thinks I am showing everyone our emails.”

“He’s terrible,” Hyungseob said seriously. “He should let the world see all the ridiculous things you say to each other. You’re cute.”

At least Hyungseob got out of Hyunmin’s seat. He hugged Hyunmin and squeezed him tightly. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Hyunmin doubted that talking about these things would help and Hyungseob didn’t disagree with him when he said as much. He returned to his own desk and left Hyunmin as the only person being given evils by multiple colleagues. 

“Hyunmin,” Wontak said quietly. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You don’t want to talk about why you haven't even started on the preliminary costings for the refurbishment trades?” Wontak asked. He didn't sound impressed and in truth Hyunmin didn't want to talk about that either. This was worse than being forced to talk about how things were with Haknyeon. 

Hyunmin sat at his desk and very subtly opened the spreadsheet he had set up based on Wontak’s template to do the costings. “What makes you say I haven't started the costings yet?”

“I opened it earlier to check your progress. What have you been doing all this time if you haven't been doing any work?”

Wontak was sneaky. Hyunmin thought it was a shame that he had to resort to sneakiness like this just to make Hyunmin feel worse about being a bad employee. Hyunmin decided to at least prevent any further annoyances for Wontak by doing some work. He opened up the spreadsheet Wontak had created as an example for a similar project. 

There weren’t even any calculations that Hyunmin really had to do for himself to work out how much the materials cost on the second stream of the refurbishment project. Hyunmin didn’t have an excuse not to have even started filling in his document. He knew that he didn’t have an excuse at all but sitting at his desk wasn’t getting anything done either. 

“I said I would die if the flowers weren’t from Haknyeon and he just laughed at me,” Hyunmin said. He had to do something productive.

“Hyunmin, of course he would laugh. How have you not managed to work out that he has been sending you all those flowers?” Wontak asked in exasperation.

“I said I wanted the flowers to be from him,” Hyunmin said. Surely admitting that he wanted it to be so was tantamount to guessing. He was speaking the thoughts into existence and getting laughed at for his trouble. “Wait, do you think he wants me to die?”

“He has been sending you flowers, Hyunmin. What are you not getting here?” Wontak sighed and leaned back in his chair. The look he sent to Hyunmin wasn’t a particularly good one. “Go and get him so you can both start doing some work for once.”

“Haknyeon does lots of work,” Hyunmin protested. 

That apparently wasn’t helpful and Hyunmin was certain after Wontak’s reaction that he only liked it when Haknyeon threw pens at him. It seemed that only Haknyeon didn’t want to actually injure Hyunmin with projectiles. Before Hyunmin could get any more bruises (this marked the second time today that he had been threatened with a stapler) he decided to find Haknyeon to make sure he didn’t get into trouble for being away from his desk. 

Haknyeon was still in the kitchen and dropped his phone when Hyunmin walked in. He picked it up, looking mildly embarrassed as he crouched to get it, and pointed at the flowers. “They’re not dead.”

“Great,” Hyunmin said. The flowers would be fine until it was time to go home anyway. He could worry about them later when he’d have to deal with the implications of putting them in a bowl of water and propping them against the microwave. Or the implications of receiving flowers at all. Or the implications of Haknyeon not confirming that he was the sender of the flowers even when Hyunmin asked. 

This wasn’t the best train of thought to be on. Hyunmin needed to get onto the reason he was back here in the first place.

“Anyway we’re at work. We should probably go back to our desks and… Do some work.”

“Yeah,” Haknyeon agreed. He smiled blandly and slipped his phone into his trouser pocket. “Definitely. We should stop bothering people like this.”

It was better that Wontak had told Hyunmin to fetch Haknyeon because at least they could compare their work Hyunmin could see that whatever numbers he had come up with were not ones the company would be willing to pay the trades. Wontak at least gave him the benefit of the doubt and advised him not to overestimate the work. It was better to ask for funds based on past projects and as for more when they were working with better defined numbers. Waiting to see whether the prices quoted were acceptable for funding most of the work was better than trying to be too smart about guessing. 

At least Hyunmin learnt one thing that day. He supposed he also learnt that being a certain level of pathetic was enough to convince Mina to buy him lunch. 

“Mina,” Hyunmin pleaded. “I got dumped today. Can’t you at least make a pathetic man happy?”

The woman behind the counter looked perplexed as she looked between Mina, Hyungseob and Hyunmin as though an answer to whether or not she should make Hyunmin’s sandwich would appear before her. She blinked quickly and Hyunmin was sure she might have even apologised quietly. At least someone was feeling sorry for Hyunmin and his pathetic misfortune. 

“Do you want the third sandwich?”

“No,” Mina said.

“Please, Mina,” Hyunmin said, shameless about pulling her into a hug. “I need this sandwich it is all I have left. This sandwich and those flowers which are going to be dead before Wednesday.”

Mina sighed. She briefly squeezed her arms around Hyunmin and Hyungseob joined in and held them all together even when Mina tried to pull away.

“Monday. I will buy this today and you can buy me lunch on Monday,” she said firmly. Relief settled on the worker’s face and she reached for the bread Hyunmin had asked for to make his six inch sub.

“It's just Subway is it that big of a deal? I have to buy you lunch too?” Hyunmin sulked. 

“If it isn't a big deal why did you want me to buy your stupid sandwich?” Mina asked. “I mean aside from the fact that you and Haknyeon can't just say you like each other normally.”

“Don't be mean,” Hyungseob said, hugging Hyunmin to his side in commiseration as Mina paid and they went to find a table. “You’re both just shy about things like this. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Should I not be ashamed of the fact that I like Haknyeon so much and he as good as told me that he doesn’t like me?” 

“Hyunmin,” Hyungseob wailed miserably. “He didn’t say that. He likes you so much too!”

Hyunmin sank into a seat heavily and Hyungseob held onto him and sat beside him. “He laughed. In my face. And he didn’t even try to correct it so that is obviously what he really thinks.”

“You’ll feel better when you eat the sandwich I bought you,” Mina said pointedly from across the table. After a moment of looking at how Hyunmin was cradled against Hyungseob’s chest she sighed. “Laughing doesn’t mean anything. He was probably just laughing at what you said.”

That might have been true but it was a strange thing to laugh at. “How is it funny that I am going to die because he hasn’t been sending me flowers?”

“Don’t die, Hyunmin. If I send you flowers will you live forever?” Hyungseob asked.

“I’ll just die faster,” Hyunmin groaned in the second before Hyungseob shoved him away and almost knocked everything off the table. Hyunmin deserved it but he was miserable and going to continue to be miserable until he died alone. “He could have said something when I saw him afterwards but he didn’t. He doesn’t like me, Mina.”

Mina didn’t have anything to say to that and that settled things for Hyunmin. It was Hyunmin’s turn to pity Hyungseob when the topic turned to Hyungseob being catfished. Mina had a turn getting annoyed at someone who wasn’t Hyunmin for once as Hyungseob insisted that the guy he was talking to was real. The guy Hyungseob was talking to was definitely not real but it was cute how trusting he was of a stranger on the internet. 

Hyungseob was still insisting he had proof that his fake almost-boyfriend with his fake name really existed. He could show Hyunmin and Mina as many overly-filtered selfies as he liked it didn’t prove anything.

“So he was apparently in the country but he went back to China and has been hanging out with his ex and-” MIna stopped talking and made a beeline for Hyunmin’s desk. 

“He’s real,” Hyungseob insisted as he dragged Hyunmin along behind her. “He says he wants me to go and visit him soon.”

“I really don’t think you should do that at all,” Hyunmin said. And then they arrived at Hyunmin’s desk and he wasn’t sure what to say. Luckily there were others who were keen to fill in the blanks for him.

“You’re so dumb and I hate you both,” Mina said. She picked up a flower from the multiple bouquets cluttering Hyunmin’s desk and plucked off a petal. “You’re really awful and annoying. Can you not just talk to each other like normal human beings?”

“She’s talking to you,” Hyungseob said helpfully to Haknyeon who was sitting at his own desk and minding his own business. Or not even minding that. Haknyeon didn’t even react until Hyungseob went to tap him on the shoulder.

“Hyungseob, let’s get out of here and watch from a distance. I think our desks are far away enough that you’ll have time to restrain me if they don’t sort this out,” Mina said. She took Hyungseob’s hand and walked him over to their desks where they sat and stared at Hyunmin. 

Wontak was still out at lunch so Hyunmin supposed there was no time as good as now to clear off his desk. It would take a while seeing there was barely any empty space remaining. There were too many flowers. 

“Where am I going to put all of these?” Hyunmin muttered.

“Aren’t you going to read any of the cards on them?” Haknyeon asked. It was a fair question. Hyunmin picked the first card he saw.

“‘You’re cute, I like you, break my heart and I will fight you.’ Is this a threat?”

“No. It’s supposed to be cute,” Haknyeon said. “Is it not cute? What should the cards say just in case they all say variations of the same thing?”

“It’s cute,” Hyunmin said. His throat hurt a bit. This was weird. Haknyeon was sitting at his desk and nervously peering at Hyunmin. “You’re cute too but I don’t think I could ever fight you.”

“Is that a promise that you won’t break my heart?” Haknyeon asked. 

This wasn’t getting any less weird. Hyunmin dragged his chair around to Haknyeon’s side of the desk and sat close to him. He ignored Hyungseob and Mina dragging their seats closer too. He couldn’t really ignore Wontak walking into the office and seeing the state of Hyunmin’s desk.

“You can’t sit by me anymore. I need to swap both of you for people who won’t block out the sun with all these flowers.”

“They’re not blocking out the sun,” Hyunmin protested. Wontak made his disbelief clear and Hyunmin prepared himself to have to relocate to a different part of the office in the near future. He was still beside Haknyeon for now and that was good enough. “I won’t break your heart. I mean I wouldn’t if this was from you. These flowers are from you, right?”

Hyunmin didn’t think he deserved to get pinched so hard. 

“Did you die, Hyunmin? Did you die because the flowers weren’t from me?” Haknyeon asked, starting to smile enough that Hyunmin guessed that maybe this wasn’t going to end in tears. 

“I didn’t die,” Hyunmin confirmed. 

“Because I sent you all the flowers,” Haknyeon said. It was a strange leap in logic, especially seeing as Hyunmin was mostly only being dramatic about dying, but it was the best thing he had heard in a while. Or ever. Until Haknyeon made more strange leaps in logic. “I can’t let you die. I like you way way too much to let that happen. So I will give you flowers all the time to keep you alive forever.”

Living forever sounded kind of nice. “What about you? What would keep you alive forever?” 

Haknyeon looked thoughtful for a moment. And then he looked concerned a bit like the girl from Subway. ”You like me back, right? I don’t know why I am being so presumptuous now. Sorry. It’s cool if you don’t. I’m sure your life isn’t really dependent on me sending you flowers. You’ve been alive for this long without me sending you flowers.”

“I like you,” Hyunmin said. He tried to sound as serious as possible because it was true and he wanted Haknyeon to know that he meant it with or without flowers. “I like you so much. Thank you for all the flowers.”

Haknyeon smiled again. “Then that’s enough. I’ll live forever if you keep liking me.”

That was great news. Obviously Hyunmin had to do a lot more than only like Haknyeon because Haknyeon deserved lots and lots of amazing things. But for now Hyunmin only had the fact that he liked Haknyeon and he would think up lots of things to do later.

“I’ll keep liking you forever so you really have to promise to live for that long,” Hyunmin said.

Mina and Hyungseob cheered loudly, though they stopped when Wontak threw a box of treasury tags across the room at them. Things were better dealt with quietly and probably via email as suggested by the notification on Haknyeon’s computer. 

 

From: kmn@produce.com

Subject: Congratulations

To: jhn@produce.com

CC: ahs@produce.com, bhm@produce.com

We’re happy that you have talked things out!!!

We’re proud!!

But please remember to talk to each other like normal people!! 

Kang Mina  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

 

And then another one.

 

From: ahs@produce.com

Subject: re: Congratulations

To: jhn@produce.com

CC: kmn@produce.com, bhm@produce.com

And maybe do some work now okay because Wontak doesn’t look happy!!

Ahn Hyungseob  
Junior Quantity Surveyor | Produce Construction | 01 2345 67890

 

“I guess I should go back to my desk,” Hyunmin said sheepishly. He wasn’t only thinking that because of the emails but he supposed this was as good a time as any to do what he was supposed to. 

“I’ll miss you,” Haknyeon said. 

“Maybe we could hang out this weekend to make up for it,” Hyunmin suggested. 

Haknyeon nodded. “We’ll talk about it later. I don’t want people to see us making plans over the work email.”

It sounded like a good idea. Hyunmin hoped he’d remember such a good idea after he moved all the bunches of flowers off his desk. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> come and shout at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/SEpupppupp) and stop me from writing hyunmin/haknyeon fics


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